Shrimp’s New Path to the Plate

STOUGHTON, Mass. — In a warehouse south of Boston, miles away from the city’s bustling harbor, James Tran, a semiconductor designer, is incubating an unlikely product: shrimp.

Mr. Tran, who started Sky8 Shrimp Farm two years ago, is one of a growing number of small, high-tech shrimp farmers in America racing to meet the country’s seemingly insatiable appetite for scampi, without ravaging the environment, using harmful chemicals or depending on overseas suppliers accused of labor rights violations.

“To go on getting shrimp the way we have is wishful thinking,” said Mr. Tran, cupping several twitching, ready-to-ship scampi in his hand. His extended family in Vietnam engages in traditional coastal shrimp farming, the kind often linked to environmental, food safety and labor troubles. But at Sky8, shrimp mature in fiberglass tanks fitted with advanced recirculation, filtration and temperature control systems.

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James Tran, who started Sky8 Shrimp Farm in Stoughton, Mass.CreditGretchen Ertl for The New York Times

“I think our industry is going to kick off pretty fast,” he said. Americans love shrimp, which overtook canned tuna as the most-consumed seafood per capita in the United States in 2002. Americans consumed an average of 3.8 pounds of shrimp in 2012, twice the amount three decades ago, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. But the nation’s taste for scampi comes with heavy social and environmental costs. Most of the shrimp the United States imports comes from farms in Latin America and in Southeast Asia, where environmental and human rights experts have long identified labor rights abuses, hazardous working conditions, damage to ecosystems and the use of hormones and antibiotics. Since last year, a bacterial disease has hit shrimp farms across Asia and Mexico, crippling shrimp production. Recent news reports have alleged the use of slave labor on boats that supply fish meal for shrimp farms in Thailand.

Shrimp fishing, too, has run into grave problems. Stocks are under pressure across the globe. China, once a major shrimp exporter, now imports shrimp to meet growing demand. American regulators called off this year’s Gulf of Maine shrimping season after research suggested that overfishing and warming waters had driven shrimp stocks to new lows. Those mounting concerns are spurring a new generation of shrimp farmers, like Mr. Tran, who are developing ways to reduce their environmental footprint. Though official statistics are not yet available, the number of small indoor shrimp farms in the United States has grown from just two to at least 22 over the last five years, with dozens more in the pipeline, according to RDM Aquaculture, which provides equipment and know-how to other shrimp upstarts. Some farms are started by entrepreneurs like Mr. Tran Others are started by farmers looking to diversify from commoditized crops and livestock.

“The situation is very much in flux,” said Pete Bridson, aquaculture research manager at the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s influential Seafood Watch program, which gives shrimp from these tank-based farms its highest rating for seafood that is farmed or fished sustainably. “We’re seeing newer farms come along that engage in closed, intensive shrimp farming, and there’s certainly a market for that,” he said.

The new wave in American shrimp farming is part of a push by both government and industry officials to raise the stature of aquaculture and reverse a disdainful public perception to farmed seafood, in part because of past controversies over cultivated ocean products.

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Keeping the shrimp in the net. One farmer said, “They’ve learned to run to the other side and hide.”CreditGretchen Ertl for The New York Times

Over all, American farmers made up 0.8 percent of global aquaculture production in 2011, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Fisheries officials estimate that doubling American aquaculture production could create 50,000 jobs and more than $1 billion in revenue for farmers.

At Sky8 Shrimp, run by four workers, it takes about three months to grow batches of 40,000 shrimp larvae, which feed on fish meal, algae and seaweed, to a size favored by retailers and restaurants. (Sky8 Shrimp is developing a feed that is free of fish meal.) The farm uses tanks of Atlantic Ocean water, filtered and reused from harvest to harvest. There are no antibiotics, no hormones and no pesticides, according to tests carried out at Sky8 last year by the Food and Drug Administration, which regulates shrimp. There is little risk that shrimp might escape and harm wild stocks.

That attention to detail comes with a cost. Mr. Tran ships as much as 1,300 pounds of fresh shrimp a month to local high-end buyers at $15 a pound, as much as twice the price imported frozen shrimp can sell for. Still, he says Sky8 is struggling to meet demand from local high-end retailers and restaurants. “We desperately need to expand capacity,” he said.

“They’re real pioneers. Hats off to them,” said Michael Rubino, who heads N.O.A.A.'s aquaculture program. “We’re at a tipping point in the public perception of aquaculture as part of the problem to part of the solution,” he said. Long a delicacy, shrimp first became more widely popular in the United States in the 1970s, when the Red Lobster chain introduced popcorn shrimp at its restaurants nationwide. The rise of shrimp farming in Asia had greatly expanded global shrimp production, driving down prices and helping to bring shrimp to a mass audience. Though America’s attempts to kick-start commercial shrimp farming also dates from the early 1970s, the industry struggled to compete with the cheap shrimp imports. Moreover, early shrimp farms were in open-air ponds or near the coast, and sometimes released effluent into sensitive ocean habitats. Hobbled by cutthroat competition from cheap imports, and disease worries, production at these early shrimp farms has declined since the early 2000s.

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Mr. Tran checks a tank full of larval shrimp.CreditGretchen Ertl for The New York Times

But now the tide could be turning. The average price of shrimp imported into the United States during the first quarter of the year was 45 percent higher than last year, according to data carried by the trade journal Undercurrent News. Darden Restaurants, which in May agreed to sell Red Lobster for $2.1 billion, has said rising shrimp costs could add $30 million to the chain’s expenses in 2014 compared with last year.

Experts also say consumers are increasingly demanding more sustainability and food transparency — though American shrimp farmers could still struggle to convince the average shopper that seeking out homegrown shrimp at higher prices is worth the deal.

“With food, everything revolves around two things: Will this make my life easier and my food cheaper?” said, Harry Balzer, chief food industry analyst at the NPD Group, a consumer research company. “But we do want to be healthy. There’s never been a time we didn’t want to be healthy.”

Among the windmills of Indiana, 600 miles from the ocean, Karlanea Brown and her husband, Darryl, have been farming shrimp since 2009 to supplement their income from corn and soybeans. Now, Ms. Brown has become a shrimp-farming evangelist of sorts, running classes on shrimp farming, financing and marketing in a big barn.

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Mr. Tran holds a young shrimp.CreditGretchen Ertl for The New York Times

So far, their company, RDM Aquaculture, has helped get 14 shrimp farms off the ground, started by people from diverse walks of life: farmers, bankers, a phone technician, a former funeral home director. At least six more shrimp farms are coming online in the next year, Ms. Brown said.

“The U.S. shouldn’t be importing shrimp when we can make our own,” Ms. Brown said. “We ship our shrimp out so fresh, their legs are still kicking when they go out the door.”

Chad Axley of Elgin, Minn., opened his shrimp farm last year to supplement income from his struggling cattle business. “I thought it made sense to do something no one else was doing,” Mr. Axley said.

Starting their Northern Tide Farm took detailed research into unfamiliar tasks, like regulating oxygen levels in the water, Mr. Axley said. Now, from eight tanks, the farm sells up to 400 pounds of shrimp a month, which Mr. Axley scoops up with a giant net. He is now building his ninth tank and has figured out most of the tricks.

One problem, though: So have the shrimp.

“They’ve learned to run to the other side and hide,” Mr. Axley said. “I’m now having to set traps.”